Any other information that you think is important for us to know about you or your current situation:

Has the debt collector or attorney done any of the following? They are threatening to sued me / They did sue me / They sued me in a county that I did not live in a the time the suit was filed

If the above does not pertain to your circumstances, please explain in detail what your circumstances are and how we can help

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NOTICE: This office does not represent you with regard to the matters set forth by you herein in this information sheet or discussed during your consultation unless and until, both you and the Attorney execute a written Agreement for Representation and the agreed upon retainer fee is received by the Attorney. Please be advised, that any and all existing due dates, deadlines, statutory obligations and/or rights that may be related to any matters addressed above, will be solely your responsibility, until and unless we have expressly in writing agreed to represent your interest.
At this point, our office does not agree to represent you. This includes not representing you with regard to the matter set forth by you on this information sheet, nor any other matters you may discuss with the Attorney during your consultation.
If your legal problem(s) involve a potential lawsuit, it is important that you realize a lawsuit must be filed within a certain period of time called a Statute of Limitations. Therefore, the Attorney strongly urges you to immediately consult with another attorney to protect your rights.
The Attorney’s decision not to represent you should not be taken by you as an expression regarding the merits of your case.

On January 9, 2018, Judge Scott of the San Joaquin Superior Court granted our Motion to Vacate Default Judgment and Dismiss the case based upon faulty substitute service. Ordinarily, California law permits default judgments based upon substitute service, but only if the substitute service requirements have been strictly followed. This means the party attempting to serve the complaint and summons must exercise reasonable diligence to achieve personal service, and can only leave the complaint and summons with a competent adult residing at your place of residence or usual address of mailing, or a person reasonably in charge of your place of business. They must then follow up by mailing the complaint and summons to your usual place of mailing.

In our case, Kenosian & Miele sued our client for a credit card debt that the client contends was never his. The bank even confirmed via telephone that they had never issued a credit card in his name or under his SSN. It is still not clear how this lawsuit came named our client. However, Kenosian & Miele attempted substitute service at a residence where he had not resided for years, even though all of the client’s public records proved that he resided in a completely different city. The client did not discover the problem until Kenosian & Miele had already obtained a default judgment and executed a levy upon the client’s bank account.

Because Kenosian & Miele failed to provide sufficient documentation to support their argument that they believed he actually resided at the address where they attempted substitute service, even though they clearly had access to the client’s true address of residency through public records, our motion to vacate the default judgment was granted for lack of proper service. On top of that, because Kenosian & Miele had failed to accomplish valid service within 3 years of filing the complaint in 2012, the case was required to be dismissed pursuant to Dill v Berquist Construction Co., 24 Cal. App. 4th 1426, 1433 and CCP 583.210(a).

If you have been served with a complaint and summons, it is vitally important that you must act on it quickly, because California law provides very strict deadlines and requirements for responding to the complaint. If you have discovered that a judgment has been entered against you already, then it is also vitally important that you must act quickly in seeking to set it aside, because again, California law provides very strict deadlines and requirements for seeking the set aside. It is best to have a lawyer help you through this process, because debt buyers and debt collection law firms usually attempt to take advantage of your lack of experience and knowledge in trying to represent yourself.